Alumni Council

The Board of Directors of the UF College of Nursing Alumni Council is an advisory body that works with the administration of the College to strengthen the link between the College’s alumni and the College’s administration, faculty and staff. The members of the Board are the elected officers and representatives of the Association and a representative of the College designated by the Dean.

President

Susan Stone
MSN 1990

Susan has been a registered nurse for 47 years. After graduating from Ohio State University with her BSN, she worked in many areas of healthcare including: operating room, bedside nursing, office nursing, blood bank nursing, school nursing, and higher education. For 28 years, Susan has been a Professor of Nursing at Valencia College, retiring in 2011. Her emphasis included adult care and leadership theory. Susan is proficient in online and classroom teaching. She earned her Master’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Florida with majors in Administration and Community Health. Susan is a published author and has presented frequently at both state and national meetings. She also owned several health-related companies providing marketing and consulting services. Susan served as a founding board member for BETA and Health Care Center for the Homeless. She also served as President of Florida Nurses Association District 8 and was a long-term Ombudsman for the State of Florida. She is still working as a health screener and coach for several companies serving Florida residents. She also teaches for the University of Central Florida College of Nursing. Susan continues to remain actively involved in several community associations. Presently, she resides in Longwood, Florida, with her husband, a retired physician. They have four children and six grandchildren.

President-Elect

Barbara “BarBee” (Emmel) Geiger, BSN, MBA
BSN 1974

BarBee currently works for the NF/SG Veterans Health System in Gainesville, Florida as the Chest Pain Center Coordinator / Systems Redesign Coordinator. She has been married 33 years to her wonderful husband and best friend, Chuck. She has three grown children, Macy, Austin and Kent, and a 4 year old grandson, Max. Her hobbies include reading, golf, sewing, cooking and gardening. She grew up in Gainesville, but lived her married life in many states in the US until she moved back to Gainesville in 2000 to be nearer to her family. BarBee would love to hear from her 1974 classmates, and she can be reached at barbeegeiger@hotmail.com

Secretary

Peggy Rodebush, RN, MSN
MSN 1985

Peggy has been a registered nurse for 35 years. She was a critical care nurse for many years and worked in various leadership roles for AvMed SantaFe. She was awarded an American Lung fellowship and earned her Master’s degree as a clinical nurse specialist from the University of Florida. After moving to Tampa with her family in 2005, she became a Healthcare Partner at Ernst & Young and worked with nurses and doctors providing consulting services to hospitals across the United States. She was hired by Ross Perot to build a clinical division for Perot Consulting and later led healthcare clinical consulting practices for IBM & Siemens, focusing on using technology to improve clinical outcomes and care in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. Peggy has been active at the national level with various healthcare organizations including HIMSS, AONE and Magnet. She retired in 2014 to spend more time with her husband, Denny, three grown children and three precious grandchildren. Peggy enjoys traveling, all Gator activities and medical mission work.

Treasurer

Cleo Stern,
BSN 1965

Leadership Succession Chair

Patricia Sassner, BSN, MSN
MSN 1997

Pat Sassner is currently working at the NF/SG VA Health care system as a NP in a Primary Care clinic. She has been an active member of the UF Board of Nursing Alumni Council since her graduation in 1997. She is very active as a preceptor for the UF NP program and was named the 2012 UF College of Nursing Preceptor of the Year. Pat is also an associate professor, doing clinic rotations for the UF undergraduate nursing program. She is married with one child.

Philanthropy Chair

Jodi Irving, MS, ARNP, CS
Professor Emeritus

Professor Irving retired as a faculty member from the College of Nursing in 2011. Although retired, Irving continues to teach part-time in the graduate-level psychiatric-mental health NP program and selected courses in the undergraduate program. In addition, as an ARNP she engages in a private practice that she established in 1973. She joined the Alumni Council in April 2007, and serves as the Philanthropy Committee Chair.

Silent Auction Chair

Rita Kobb, MN, GNP-BC
BSN 1981, MSN 1996

Mrs. Rita Kobb has been with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for twenty one years. She has been a Gerontological nurse practitioner for the past 12 years. Prior to that she worked as a Gerontological clinical nurse specialist. Mrs. Kobb holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Nursing from the University of Florida. In 1999 she was part of a conceptual planning team to develop a new model of care for high-risk, high-use, and high-cost veterans in the Sunshine Network (Florida-Puerto Rico) using care coordination and home telehealth technologies. From February 2000 until January 2004 she was the Lead Care Coordinator for a care coordination and home telehealth program, the Tech Care Coordination Program located in Lake City, Florida as part of the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System. Mrs. Kobb is the Education Program Specialist for the VHA Office of Care Coordination and the Director of the only national training center for care coordination and home telehealth. Mrs. Kobb has spoken all over the country about care coordination and home telehealth in VHA. .She has consulted with several healthcare organizations and government agencies from around the world about home telehealth implementation. She has been recognized as an expert consultant in care coordination and home telehealth and has served as Chair of the American Telemedicine Association’s Home Telehealth Special Interest Group.

Regional Representative

Dee Goff, BSN 1971
Membership Chair

Upon graduation, Dee spent 15 years as a critical care nurse at hospitals in FL & WA. She then moved away from the bedside and spent 14 years as the Clinical Educator, Quality Assurance Director, and Risk Manager for a large durable medical equipment company. Since December 1999 Dee has been the national director of Quality Assurance & Risk Management for Kforce HealthCare. Her position with Kforce requires her to travel to each of the firm’s healthcare offices located across the country, so she is “in the skies” on the average of about 2-3 weeks/month. She has 2 grown children – both of them are Gators! Her daughter is also a UF CON alum. Dee resides in Clearwater.

Regional Representative

Patsy Love, RN, BSN
BSN 1990

Patsy currently teaches health assessment at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida for all entering nursing students, and does pediatric clinicals in the ER during the summer for senior nursing students. Patsy is also attending the University of South Florida in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program with an estimated graduation date of December 2009. Her oldest daughter is an RN that graduated from UNCC with a Master’s degree in counseling and lives in Orlando where she is opening her own practice specializing in Play Therapy. Her youngest daughter is a graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in Marketing living in North Carolina. Patsy has five grandchildren that love coming to the beach and going to Gator games with Grandma.

Past Presidents

Kim Curry, PhD, ARNP (2012-2014)
BSN 1976

Kim graduated from the University of Florida in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She has an MBA from Southern Illinois University, a PhD in Adult Education and a Master of Science in Nursing, both from the University of South Florida. She is a nationally certified Family Nurse Practitioner. She currently serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the UF College of Nursing. She also serves as a primary care provider at a privately funded clinic providing care to the medically underserved. She is married with one child and enjoys running, scuba diving, and reading.

Karen Hanson, BSN, MSN (2010-2012)
BSN 1966, MSN 1986

Karen enjoys working with the alumni council and has been very connected with the college since graduating. In the late 1970s, she worked with other Central Florida nurses to bring graduate nursing education to Orlando, and subsequently earned her master’s degree at the Orlando campus of the University of Florida. She is currently retired after recently serving as a Process Architect with the MIS department at Florida Hospital in Orlando. She was involved with coordination and facilitation of training 10,000 clinical staff across 7 campuses for a new electronic medical record. She has 3 children. Scott, 38, is a high school administrator and has 2 children. Brett, 35, works as a government contractor in computer security and has 3 children. Michelle, 26, is an environmental engineer living in Los Angeles, enjoying single life and pursuing her mountain biking and adventure racing activities.

Karen is an avid Gator fan, having had season football tickets for 30 years and looks forward to her grandchildren being old enough to accompany her to games. Cross-stitching is a favorite past-time and she has crafted and donated several pieces for auction at reunion weekends.
Karen can be reached at khanson@cfl.rr.com

Ex-Officio

Ann-Lynn Denker, ARNP, PhD
BSN 1973

Ann-Lynn is the current Magnet Project Director/Nursing Research Coordinator at Jackson Health System in Miami Florida. In addition Ann-Lynn has a faculty appointment at the University of Miami School of Nursing. Ann-Lynn also serves on the Board of Directors of the Florida Nurses Association and is currently chair of the FNA Polical Action Committee. Ann-Lynn is also administrator for the Magnet program and registered nurse with Jackson Memorial Medical Center, succeeding Patricia Dittman, appointed for a term beginning February 27, 2009, and ending October 31, 2012.

Members-at-Large

Debbie Pusateri, MSN
MSN 1996
Member-At-Large

Debbie has worked at Florida Hospital in Orlando Florida since 1976. Her current role is as Nursing People Officer/Assistant Vice President of Critical Care Services. She is responsible for developing critical care services to meet the safety agenda by implementing evidenced based practice, rapid response teams and the intensivist model. She is also responsible for nurse recruitment, development and retention. Debbie is very passionate about being a Gator Nurse and is very excited to be joining the Alumni Council.

Alice “Dee Dee” Boyington , PhD, RN
PhD 1997, MSN 1986

DeeDee is the Director of Nursing Research at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute where she is also a member of the Health Outcomes & Behavior Program. She lives in Tampa with her husband Ron, and they both are avid college sports fans. DeeDee is a diehard Gator and is a founding member of the Real Gator Club at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a small but “intensely-Gator” group. She devotes her spare time to ensuring that her grandchildren, Alexander and Sarah, embrace the “lived experience” of belonging to the Gator Nation.

Dee Dee can be reached at DeeDee.Boyington@moffitt.org

If you would like to learn more about serving on the Alumni Council Board, please contact the College of Nursing Alumni Affairs Office at 352-273-6421 or via e-mail at tracyb@ufl.edu

Together we discover. Together we teach.Together we care for our patients and our communities.Together we create unstoppable momentum.